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Chamber Chair,
Original Senate Chamber

This wooden chair was used in the Senate Chamber in the original Parliament Building that burned down in the 1916 fire on Parliament Hill. 

Only one chair from that Chamber remains in the Senate’s possession today, but it’s believed that 108 in this style were acquired in the mid-1800s. Records suggest this chair was taken from East Block and stored by a national museum. 

The chair’s maker was William Drum, an Irish craftsman whose high-quality work catapulted him to Canadian furniture stardom. His Quebec-based company grew into one of the most prosperous furniture makers in the province and, by the 1870s, it was the second largest in all of Canada. 

Ahead of an 1860 royal tour of what is now Eastern Canada, Mr. Drum was commissioned to create furniture for the apartments in Québec City and Montréal where the Prince of Wales — the future King Edward VII — would stay.

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